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S Jaishankar on Friday said the government is awaiting the release of 69 Indians recruited into the Russian army and that in many cases there are indications that the Indian nationals were misled. Speaking in the Lok Sabha, the minister also said the government has taken up seriously the issues of recruitment of Indian nationals into the Russian army and cyber crime trafficking of nationals to South East Asian countries. There are a total of 91 cases so far of Indian nationals being recruited in the Russian army. Out of them, eight have passed away, 14 have been discharged or sent back, and the release of 69 nationals is awaited, Jaishankar said during the Question Hour. «We take this issue very very seriously… I have myself raised it many times with the Russian foreign minister,» he said and added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took up the issue during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month.

NEET PG Hearing 2024 Live Updates: The Supreme Court will hear on Friday a plea seeking postponement of the NEET-PG examination, scheduled for August 11, which claimed that candidates have been allocated cities that are highly inconvenient to reach. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra on Thursday took note of lawyer Anas Tanwir's submissions on the issue.The plea said many candidates have been allocated cities which are highly inconvenient for them to reach.

₹439 crore for the quarter ended June in FY25. Its net profit grew 1.7% year-on-year to ₹35.4 crore for the same period. “Our strategic emphasis on premiumization and strong branding has positioned us to capture a greater market share," Anoop Bector, managing director of the company said in a recent investor presentation.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in as the head of Bangladesh's interim government on Thursday. This follows protests that led to the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier this week.

Kazakhstan’s anti-money laundering agency says officials in the country have blocked illegal crypto transactions worth a total of $75.4 million.

Carlyle," the first person quoted above said, adding that Alpha Wave is also likely to infuse some fresh capital into the company. “The term sheet from Alpha Wave is conditional and is contingent upon the company meeting several milestones such as FY25 revenue growth, targeted store openings and other clauses," the second person noted above said. “The deal is likely to be closed only next financial year." The deal comes a year and a half after Carlyle bought a majority stake in the company for $300 million in January 2023.

merchant payment companies are scouting for business opportunities outside the country as margins turn wafer-thin amid rising domestic competition. Pine Labs, Juspay, CC Avenue and FSS have set up operations outside India and are also hiring senior talent for these markets, which they hope will be their new growth drivers. Aiding the push is the growing acceptance of Indian payments technology worldwide. In India, these merchant payment companies have been losing out on major revenue generation opportunities due to competition from popular payment modes like Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and RuPay debit cards which do not attract a fee. The government has also reduced the budgetary allocation for payment subsidies.

Coforge and Persistent Systems earned more than their counterparts in TCS and Infosys in the last financial year as some Indian midcap IT firms are paying top dollar to their CEOs who are growing their business despite headwinds from multiple directions. Coforge CEO Sudhir Singh’s annual remuneration jumped three times in FY24 to more than $12.5 million (Rs 105.12 crore), making him the second-highest paid Indian IT firm CEO last financial year, trailing only former Wipro CEO Thierry Delaporte. Other midcap IT firm CEOs like Nitin Rakesh of Mphasis and Sandeep Kalra of Persistent Systems earned Rs 44.13 crore ($5.2 million) and Rs 77.1 crore ($9.1 million), respectively, in FY24, according to the companies’ annual reports.

Russia's Defense Ministry says the country's troops are fighting Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region on the third day of one of the largest cross-border incursions of the war

Greek authorities have flown additional forces to the southern island of Crete, where 250 firefighters are battling a wildfire that has forced the evacuation of eight mountain villages

Throughout decades of political change in Argentina, the annual Aug. 7 pilgrimage to St. Cayetano Sanctuary has served as a potent, and grim, reminder that in Argentina, economic despair remains a constant

The world is falling well short of a promise signed at global climate talks last year to triple the amount of wind power, according to research by an energy think tank released Thursday

A U.S. jury has convicted former Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang in a bribe conspiracy case that welled up from from his country’s “tuna bond” scandal

Arshad Nadeem, who gave Pakistan its first Olympics medal after 32 years, is as spectacular as his 92.7 meter throw in the Javelin final. Nadeem's journey is celebrated not because of institutional support but despite the lack thereof. When he took up javelin, Nadeem reportedly did not have much money. According to his father, Muhammad Ashraf, people pooled money so that he can train. “People have no idea how Arshad got to this place today. How his fellow villagers and relatives used to donate money so that he could travel to other cities for his training and events in his early days,” his father Muhammad Ashraf revealed.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar will pay a three-day visit to Maldives starting Friday as both countries look to repair the strained relationship since President Mohamed Muizzu came to power last year. This would be Jaishankar's first visit to Male since Muizzu was elected to office. During the visit, India and Maldives will inaugurate completed projects under High Impact Community Development Projects and Line of Credit facility of EXIM Bank of India and witness the exchange of the memorandum of understanding on areas for capacity building, commerce and trade, said Maldives foreign ministry on Thursday announcing the visit. «Maldives is India's key maritime neighbour and an important partner in India's 'Neighbourhood First' Policy and our Vision 'Sagar' i.e. Security and Growth for All in the Region. The visit is aimed at strengthening the close partnership between the two countries and to explore avenues to enhance the bilateral relationship further,» the MEA said in a statement.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Asim Munir on Thursday warned against attempts to create chaos in the cash-strapped country, saying the armed forces will foil any such move and safeguard national integrity. His remarks came after many teasing comments appeared on social media, often comparing Pakistan's situation with that of Bangladesh where a popular uprising swept away a government which had won a landslide electoral victory. «If someone tries to create chaos in Pakistan, by God, we will stand before him. No power in the world can harm Pakistan because this country is built to last,» Gen Munir was quoted as saying by the Inter-Services Public Relations, the army's media wing. Addressing a conference of Islamic clerics here, the army chief reiterated the military's dedication to preserving peace and stability in the country.

Professor Mohammad Yunus, a well-known critic of Sheikh Hasina and persecuted by her regime, when the Nobel laureate became the head of the caretaker government after she resigned and fled to India. The 84-year-old economist, globally recognised as 'The Father of Microfinance,' who flew down from Paris earlier in the day, was declared as the head of the interim government by President Mohammed Shahabuddin after dissolving Parliament Tuesday, a decision prompted by a demand by the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement. Yunus had announced plans to form a political party in 2007 when the country was run by a military-backed government and criticised Bangladeshi politicians alleging they were only interested in money. He, however, did not follow through on that plan. By a quirk of fate, on Thursday he took oath to lead a non-partisan, non-military caretaker government.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Tarique Rahman, and the student leadership which led the protests that ousted the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh earlier this week are at loggerheads over general elections, according to people in the know. Sources told ET that Rahman is in a hurry to hold elections that may enable him to become the next PM, and is worried that «pro-BNP» and «pro-Jamaat» sentiments may dilute if elections are delayed. However, the student leadership has a different view. It does not have a political structure and wants time to create a party before contesting the polls.

Mint. About the Ganga water treaty renewal, the minister said, “We are moving forward positively." The Ganga treaty will complete 30 years in 2026 and calls for a renewal. Queries sent to the spokesperson of the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, and the concerned departments of Sikkim and West Bengal governments remained unanswered at press time.

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) on Thursday said the company has diversified its coking coal sourcing, thus reducing dependence on Australia for the key raw material by over 50 per cent. The initiative will aid in reducing the overall cost involved in manufacturing steel, the company said in a regulatory filing. The development assumes significance as the government was making efforts to reduce India's dependence on a select group of countries for meeting coking coal requirements. Indian steel players were making bulk purchases of coking coal from Australia due to unavailability of coking coal in the domestic market. Alternate sources will improve its timely availability and reduce logistic costs. This initiative has significantly reduced the company's consumption of Australian coking coal by more than 50 per cent, the company said.

Pharma India on Thursday said its net loss stood at Rs 12 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2024. The drug maker had reported a net profit of Rs 54 crore in the April-June quarter of last fiscal. Total income stood at Rs 396 crore for the June quarter against Rs 303 crore in the year-ago period, AstraZeneca Pharma India said in a regulatory filing.